Time and Time Again
by Hollyleaf The Black Cat
Summary: When Tony Stark tries to bring his father from the past to the future, he accidentally brings back Peggy Carter instead. Not able to get back until the portal is fixed, the two of them take the time to learn from each other more about the past and future while dealing with all the problems having such knowledge can bring. - Avengers Academy AU
1. Prologue: Tony

**Author's Note:** So I originally published this one AO3 in September and it's my 50th fic so I don't know why I never got around to publishing it on here. Too lazy I guess. Anyway the idea for this fic came from this tumblr post ( post/149872195032). I've never played Avengers Academy before so I don't really understand any of it's story or anything like that. But I like the whole premise of them younger and working on building their powers at this academy so I kinda want to keep all that plot point but obviously this'll be different than the actually Avengers Academy storyline cause I don't even know what it is. So basically inspired by avengers academy, keeping a similar setting and characters, but not following the actual storyline cause I don't know it. A lot of this fic will contain bonding between Tony and Peggy and the two of them discussing the past and the future and Howard and Steve and anyway I just really hope you all enjoy it!

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 _Though it pains me to admit this, time travel is impossible. Despite all of our research we've only been met with countless failed experiments and thus we have reached the conclusion that time is the one plane which we cannot transcend. Effectively immediately Project Clockwork is shut down indefinitely._  
 _\- Howard Stark_

Tony Stark can't help but laugh as he looks from the letter in his hand to the portals in front of him.

Portals created for time travel.

"Wait til you see this, Dad," he whispers to himself.

Howard Stark might have never been the greatest father to Tony but he certainly was the greatest motivator whether Tony wanted to admit it or not. He lived to outshine his father's feats and he was pretty sure this would definitely push him over the top. Time travel was labeled 'impossible' by Howard but nothing was 'impossible' to Tony.

Tony had decided to create the portals when he'd found an old file in some of his father's stuff that discussed his various experiments in Project Clockwork. The project had been funded to try to find a way to time travel so they could go into the past and try to stop catastrophic events such as World War II. However, all the experiments were failures and a few years into it Howard had decided to shut it down.

He'd kept all his research though and, with the help of J.A.R.V.I.S., Tony had found all the flaws in it that could be corrected with modern technology. And that led to the creation of his portals. One was created to bring things back from the past and the other was created to send them back to it. The two were connected, however, because the only way to keep them stable was by having both holes in the time-space continuum opened at the same time.

Tony had done some tests with a few random objects to make sure everything was working. A paperclip. A cell phone. A stray cat. All had been sent back a few years into the past and then retrieved so he could make sure both portals worked. So far everything had gone well but he had yet to bring a human being back from the past.

That was about to change though. Tony finished prepping the machines and went to fix the settings for his experiment: to bring his father back from the past.

Tony knew if he could bring his father back from the past and show him all he'd accomplished in the future then he knew he'd be impressed and proud of him. So he had to make sure everything was just right.

The portal to bring something back was a little more complicated than the portal to send something back. To send something back you just needed a date and a location to send them back to. However, to bring something back you needed a date, a location, and something that signified what you wanted to bring back (such as a photo, a piece of DNA, etc.). Tony had chosen a photo: one of his father and Agent Peggy Carter outside his father's lab around the time that Project Clockwork would've been going on. Tony had gotten rid of most of the photos of his father by himself after his death and the ones he kept of both of his parents he felt featured both of them too prominently that he'd accidentally bring his mother back too. This one of his father and Agent Carter showed mostly his father. Agent Carter was off in the background walking toward him so Tony assume it will be fine.

So he types in the date and location he'd found written down on the back of the photo and lays the photo over the scanner. He puts his goggles on to block out the light and then hits the switch.

In the blink of an eye, there's a flash of bright light, a horrible churning noise, and a then sparks coming from the machines. Tony hits the switch to try and stop the portals but it's pretty obvious they aren't listening to him so he ducks behind his desk as they continue to spark.

A few seconds later the portals have stopped, the sparks have died down, and a cloud of smoke has enveloped his lab.

He slowly peaks up from behind his desk to see a human silhouette in the smoke surrounding the portals.

"I can't believe it worked," he whispers as he stares at the figure.

As he rises from his hiding spot, he asks "Dad?"

But when the smoke clears, it's obvious that the person standing there is not Howard Stark.

It's Agent Peggy Carter, circa 1948.

Tony stops a few feet away to observe her. She looks exactly as she did in the picture: the wavy brown hair, the blue sailor top, the long white skirt, the bright red lips.

She coughs a little as she swats away the lingering smoke. Then she surveys the area around her, a confused expression forming.

"What's going on? Where am I?" she begins. Then her eyes land on Tony. "Howard?"

Tony shakes his head as he walks closer to her. "I'm not Howard. I'm his son, Anthony, er, Tony. I figured he'd be impressed if I used these time portals to bring him here and show him Stark Tower. I brought you instead Aunt—uh, I mean, Agent Carter. Not that I'm disappointed…"

And he isn't. Well, not completely. He is a little disappointed that it isn't his father standing there in front of him but he is pretty proud that it'd worked. He successfully created a machine that could allow time travel among humans.

"How many years have passed?" she asks him, clearly not to freaked out about the idea of time travel.

Tony rubs the back of his neck as he looks down at the floor. "...Seventy. Ish..."

She rubs her temple clearly trying to control her frustration then lets out a sigh. "Okay, well, how about you send me back now?"

Tony nods, agreeing that's probably the best option.

He steps over to the 'sending' portal to get it all set back up and that's when he notices the charred pieces of it. He then looks over at the portal she's standing on and sees pieces of it have been blown off. He immediately can feel his stomach sinking. The portals were made with vibranium, the rarest metal on earth. He wished he could've used any other metal but vibranium was the only metal he found could handle the opening of the portals and sustain them in a single area instead of sucking his lab up.

"Uh..." He can't think of what to say as he jumps up and checks the computer and scanner. Both are totally shot to hell as well and this situation is only getting worse.

"What?" she asks as she notices his expression drop.

"Um...it's not that bad," he begins as he frantically begins running around the lab in search of something.

"What's not?"

"I can fix it."

"Fix what?

"I can fix it," he repeats, more to himself than her.

Obviously she doesn't believe him because she demands an answer when she shouts out again.

"Anthony Stark, what the hell did you do?!"

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So this is part one of the prologue and the next chapter is the final part of the prologue.


	2. Prologue: Peggy

**Author's Note:** So this is the final part of the prologue and currently as far as I've written. Hopefully, I will pick up writing on this some this year. Anyway for now enjoy this chapter!

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This is not how Peggy Carter expected to spend her day.

When she'd woken up it was a nice summer day in 1948. She didn't have to work but she had needed to stop by Howard's lab and deliver some papers to him that had come in from the government about Project Clockwork.

Honestly Peggy didn't understand what had driven Howard into thinking time travel was something worth spending time and money on to research. In Peggy's mind it was just a concept from one of those cheap science fiction novels and not scientifically viable. Time travel opened a world of possibilities to correcting mistakes and bettering life so if something so perfect was possible then why hadn't it been discovered? To Peggy it seemed to fall along the lines of if it's too good to be true than it probably was.

But Howard believed that it could be done and the government believed he could do it so they had decided to provide some funding. Considering that this was all happening through S.H.I.E.L.D. and not just Stark Industries though Peggy, as director, was also a part of it. Of course, anything from the government required confidentiality and that required a signature on a non-disclosure agreement. Peggy had signed her part and now all that was left was Howard's.

She'd found him that morning standing outside of his lab with a reporter and a photographer. It really wasn't surprising to her as he had reporters over all the time, interviewing him about his various ventures. She really just hoped he wasn't talking about Project Clockwork.

"Howard!" she shouted as she started making her way toward him.

He turned around and gave her a smile and wave. "Hey, Peg! Come over here and meet these two reporters! They're doing a piece on Stark Industries' endeavor into…"

Howard continued talking but Peggy wasn't paying him any attention because she noticed ripples forming in the air behind him. He seemed to be oblivious to them though and Peggy wondered if the heat. Then, as if by magic, a hole began to form from the ripples.

Even though Peggy didn't exactly know what's going on, she immediately jumped into action. She tossed the papers to the ground and broke into a run shouting at him. "Howard, watch out!"

Howard looked at her, confused by her outburst, until he turned around and saw the giant hole that formed behind him. His eyes went wide as it started to swirl. Then, as if it was a tornado, it started sucking him in. "Peg!" he shouted as he started clawing at the air, futilely trying to pull himself out.

Before it could drag him in any further though, Peggy tackled him to the ground, freeing him from the hole. The only problem was it started swirling faster and began to pull her in. She tried to fight its grasp but nothing seemed to work.

"Peg!" shouted Howard as he reached out for her.

She could feel her fingertips brush his but it just wasn't enough. "Howard!" she screamed as she went tumbling through the hole, not quite sure where she'd end up on the other side.

Now, however, she does know where she ended up: the lab of Howard's son, Tony, 70 years into the future.

At the moment he's paused his searching to look at her. She's got her arms crossed and an angry look on her face, the same look she always gives Howard in these situations. Tony's has the same expression that Howard wears in response to her look.

"Anthony Stark, what the hell did you do?!" she shouts, demanding an answer.

He holds his hands up as if he's about to be shot. "Okay don't be mad, Aun-, erm, Agent Carter, but, um, you might be stuck here for just a little longer."

"How long is a 'little'?" Peggy says with a sigh. Having dealt with his father, she knows that 'little' is a relative term.

"Just until I can get some supplies. Some new wires, a little bit of vibranium, some-"

At the word 'vibranium', Peggy's ears perk up. "Wait, did you just say vibranium? As in the rarest metal on Earth?"

"Yes…" begins Tony, "but that's not as bad as it sounds. I can get some; it'll just take a little bit of time."

There the word 'little' is again, she thinks. "How much time?"

"Um, I'd have to ask the man I get it from," begins Tony as he squats down beside the portals to start figuring out what exactly he's going to need.

"Who do you get it from?" she asks, though she assumes if Tony is anything like Howard it's probably from some black market dealer is the country of Wakanda.

When Tony hesitates to answer, Peggy's almost certain she's right.

"Just some guy I know," he finally says, "Look it doesn't matter as much who as I get from as the when. I'll call him later when it's a more appropriate time in his part of the world and we'll get this all worked out. For now, um, just stay put in here. I'll be right back."

With that Tony heads out of his lab. Peggy stood there for another moment, looking around the lab. There's a lot of things in it that Peggy's never seen before and she wonders if she should take a lot around or just grab a seat and wait for Tony to return.

In the end she decides to take a look around.

Some of the items around the room she's seen before, though not these modern versions obviously. She also sees something else familiar as she looks on his desk. It's in a glass box on this desk with the words 'Tony Stark has a heart' written on it. The object looks like something Peggy had seen Howard drawing up one day.

She moves on from admiring it to looking at the computer on his desk. She's never seen anything like it and wonders what it does. She presses the keys on the keyboard, which reminds her of a typewriter, but nothing happens so she moves on to wondering around the rest of the lab.

In one corner she notices a pile of discarded metal arms, legs, and masks. She picks up a few and examines them before she picks up one of the masks and puts it on.

The inside looks something like a mix between a switchboard and the control board of a helicopter. Then there's the little screens in the eyes that Peggy doesn't quite understand the point of.

"Those are broken," says Tony and Peggy turns around to trying to see him, which is hard considering the mask doesn't really have peripheral vision.

He steps over to her and takes the mask off her head; that's when she notices a bag in his hand. "I've got a working one. Well sorta working. I'm trying to finish a whole suit to use."

"Well, I'm sure it'll be something to see," begins Peggy. "You have a lot of interesting things in here. It reminds me of when I visit Howard's lab."

She can see a flash of agitation in Tony's eyes and he quickly changes the subject. "Here," he begins holding the bag out to her.

Peggy opens it up and notices women's clothes in it though it's nothing like she's used to wearing. Denim jacket, white tank top, jeans with a few rips in them, tennis shoes.

"What's this for?" she asks.

"Well, it's pretty obvious you're going to be stuck here at least until tomorrow and I need to run to the hardware store so I don't want to take you out and someone recognize you so-"

"Who here would recognize me?" she asks. She's pretty sure anyone who knew her would be dead or really old by now. Certainly not someone Tony and her would just run into during a trip to the hardware store.

He hesitates to answer and she wonders what he's not telling her. Finally, he sighs. "Okay the truth is that your pretty famous here at the Academy because of how great a spy you were. There's actually a statue of you in your younger years on campus. So surely someone would be curious as to why you look exactly like it."

Peggy studies him for a moment, feeling there's something he's not saying, but for the most part his story seems plausible. Though it does bring up some questions in here mind, like where exactly are her and the others from the past these days? What all did she do in her career that they'd give her a statue? What exactly is this Academy they are at?

She voices none of these questions though, at least not yet. "Alright, I understand. I'll get changed then."

She looks around the room and doesn't notice any changing spaces. She turns back to Tony who's just standing there. "What?" he asks.

"Anthony, unless you want a beating like I've gave Howard before when he's tried to watch me change then I suggest you stand outside."

"Right," began Tony as he walked toward the door. "Sorry Agent Carter."

When he's out the door, Peggy quickly gets changed. The fashion styles have certainly changed over the late 70 years, though Peggy must say she's glad that it's more acceptable for women to wear pants in public. After she's dressed, she unties her hair out of its bow and pulls it into a messy ponytail then heads out the door.

Tony's standing there, slumped against the wall but he jumps up straight when she appears.

"Let's get going, shall we?"

Tony just nods and off they go.

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So again this is as far as I've got written and I can't make any promises of when updates will be. Follow though if you want to be on the lookout for them. Anyway, as always reviews and constructive criticism are much appreciated! See y'all next chapter! ;D


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